Defense Contractors

An august panel of graybeards at the National Research Council has concluded that the U.S. should deploy interceptor missiles along the East Coast to defend against incoming missiles from rogue states like Iran.

There was a special eight-page “advertising supplement” tucked into the rear of Sunday’s Washington Post. “Section R” was crammed with the details and history of those who have displayed enough “conspicuous gallantry and …

Interesting Pentagon contract buried deep in the long list it announced Friday. The Army awarded nearly $15 million to Jorge Scientific of Arlington, Va., to “provide for the modification of an existing contract to research and develop a methodology for counter insurgency operations. Work will be performed in Arlington and Afghanistan…”

The Navy has just authorized full-rate production of the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System, a laser-guided rocket system that manufacturer BAE Systems says costs only a third as much the Hellfire missile commonly …

Two hundred years ago, the U.S. military was fighting the Creek Indians and their allies, who responded by slaughtering some 250 white and mixed-blood Native Americans at Fort Mims, Alabama. Such a heritage may come in handy, now that the U.S. military has awarded the Creeks, doing business as the Muscogee Nation Business Enterprise of …

Rent-seeking is a phrase increasingly in vogue by folks without real jobs. Wikipedia defines it as “an attempt to obtain economic rent by manipulating the social or political environment in which economic activities occur, rather than by creating new wealth.” Synonym: the U.S. defense industry and its allies, c. 2012.